I Made It to the Park and Back With 5 Kids 5 and Under

Wow, what an incredible honor to be given the “You Made It to the Park and Back With 5 Kids 5 and Under” award. 

There are so many factors that played a part in making this journey a success. 

First of all I want to give thanks to God, because without Him none of this would be possible. 

Now, normally I would move on and thank the snacks that I had packed. These snacks are of the crucial variety, the ones which typically keep kids preoccupied and happy to sit in a stroller as we travel to and from the park but of course with 5 little ones running around, getting out the door with everyone wearing coats and shoes felt like victory enough and the snacks were forgotten.   

So instead of snacks, I would like to thank Weather, you are a very unpredictable friend, especially in the pacific northwest. I just never know if a day will bring rain or sunshine, even when I check my weather app. There have been times when it tells me it’s sunny outside and I look out and see clouds and rain trickling down. Then there are other times when it says rain is coming and yet the rain never comes. And so I never really know if I can trust it. But the day we went to the park, the skies were clear, the sun was high and even though the temperature was a bit chilly, the much needed fresh air was worth it. So thank you weather for creating an ideal scenario in which we could escape our house and have fun at the park. 

Next, I’d like to give a special thanks to none other than Bob, the double stroller. You were such a great craigslist find. Not only did you hold the 2 toddlers, seamlessly, but you also provided compartments for all the mittens, hats and jackets that I layered on the kids. All of which seemed to come off as they ran around the playground. You really pulled your weight in this endeavor, both literally and figuratively.

Not only did Bob work hard, so did Ergo, the carrier. Thank you for keeping my three month old so warm and snuggly – he slept the whole time all snuggled up next to me. You kept him happy and out of harm’s way as we walked to and from the park. 

Of course none of this wouldn’t have been possible without the 5 children who accompanied me to and from the walk. Now I know that all of them weren’t mine, I was watching two of them. But their energy is truly what made all of this possible. If it wouldn’t have been for them and their boundless energy all trapped within the walls of our house I would not have had the drive to bundle them all up and make the quarter mile trek to the local park. I’m grateful they all listened well, played happily at the park and no tantrums were thrown when I said it was time to go. 

I am so incredibly honored to celebrate this memory-making moment, a moment of victory, a moment of strength, a moment of success, a moment that I’m proud of. So thank you again, this is one award I’ll treasure for years to come. 

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This post is part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to view the next post in the series “Acceptance Speech”.